Google has admitted that it profits from illegal ads selling fake Olympics tickets, cannabis and false ID cards and passports, a questionable practice for the company that goes by the motto "don't be evil".

Google has admitted that it profits from illegal ads selling fake Olympics tickets, cannabis and false ID cards and passports, a questionable practice for the company that goes by the motto "don't be evil".

A BBC television show called 5 Live Investigates found that the illegal products were being advertised via Google's AdWords service, and despite Google subsequently removing those ads, it revealed that it still kept the money it received from the fraudsters.

Selling fake London Olympics tickets, which usually cost hundreds of dollars, is illegal under the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act passed in the UK in 2006, with a penalty of £20,000, but many people are being duped by fake online ticket sellers as the dates draw closer.

"While Google AdWords provides a platform for companies to advertise their services, we are not responsible for, nor are we able to monitor the actions of each company," said Google. It said its system is partially automated, which can let some illegal content through, but that it removes any ads that are found to break its policies.

Google has previously attempted to remove a growing number of fake product ads from its service, but since there is so much money to be made in these scams they keep appearing and reappearing, often at the top of search results. The fact that Google is taking a cut of the proceeds, however, raises questions over whether or not it is indirectly facilitating or benefiting from this behaviour.